A look at what's happening around Dunedin.
• Gigs
Alibi, the Octagon.
Fridays, from 10.30pm: Hemi and Bede.
The Bog, corner George and London Sts.
Every Sunday, 7.30pm: open mike night with Jae Bedford and Mimz Craig.
Chicks Hotel, Port Chalmers.
Friday, 8pm: Tommy and the Fallen Horses.
Saturday, 7.30pm: Listen Lisse and guests.
Sunday: Julia Deans (Fur Patrol) and guests
Circadian Rhythm, 72 St Andrew St, Dunedin.
Every Friday: Philtre jazz trio, 5.30pm onwards.
Isis Lounge, 68 Princes St.
Every Wednesday, 8pm: iJazz.
Every Thursday: Oxo Cubans jam night, from 8pm.
Every Friday, 8pm: Oxo Cubans, party night.
Saturday, 9pm: Jimmy Higgs and band.
Ra Cafe and Bar, 21 the Octagon.
Tonight, 8.30pm: Antz and Flanders.
Friday, 10pm: Seabeast.
Saturday, 9pm: Local singer-songwriter Ryan.
Saturday, 11pm: DJ Nick.
Refuel, Otago University.
Tuesdays: Jazz in the Pocket.
Robbie Burns Pub, 374 George St.
Thursdays: Calder Prescott Jazz Quartet, 8.30pm.
Rosie's Bar, Victoria Hotel.
Thursdays, 9pm: open mike night.
Gear provided.
Swell, St Clair Esplanade.
Friday, 6pm: Calder Prescott Jazz Duo.
Every Saturday, 3pm-6pm: live jazz from Trevor Coleman and Nick Cornish.
Saturday, 6.30pm: Steve King.
Sunday, 3pm: Chocolate.
• Family fun
Cromwell Library
Today: Holiday programme, 5-to-10-years session, 2-3pm: Doggy Tails.
Enrolments essential, phone 445-0213.
Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the Octagon.
Until April 18, 10am-5pm: School holiday project: "My Utopian Dreamland".
Be inspired by Cao Fei, and create your own dream city or dream world with the materials provided on the activities table.
Go in the draw for a prize. Free.
Until April 18, 10am-4.30pm: "Detail Detective". Find the details from the paintings, prints or sculptures on the activity sheet.
There will be clues.
Young children will need to be accompanied by an adult.
Wednesday, 11.15am: "Tours for tots".
Parents and caregivers: take part in a free baby-friendly half-hour tour of an exhibition at the gallery followed by a chat and a cup of tea on the mezzanine floor.
Hayes Engineering Works, Ida Valley Rd, Oturehua.
Sunday, from 10am: Hayes Engineering Operational Day.
Contact: (03) 444-5801
Knox Church, 449 George St.
Fridays, 1.30-2.30pm: preschool music for children 0-5 and carers.
Otago Museum, 419 Great King St.
Explorer backpacks for 7- to 12-year-olds, free.
Guided tours daily at 11.30am and 3.30pm.
Meet at the information desk.
Weekends, 10.30am and 2pm, atrium level 1: children's creative activities.
Every Saturday and Sunday during April, 2.30pm: Porotiti, Wind Voices - make your own traditional Maori instrument.
Saturday and Sunday, Atrium Level 1, 1pm: Create your own dinosaur clay creatures.
Visitor Information Centre, Octagon.
Daily, 11am: Walk Dunedin, inner-city walking tours.
Meet at the visitor centre.
• Music and performance
Marama Hall, University of Otago.
Lunchtime concert, Wednesday, 1pm: Benjamin Cauckwell, baritone; Terence Dennis, piano.
Mayfair Theatre, King Edward St.
Friday, 7.30pm: Fiona Pears and band.
Otago Museum, 419 Great King St.
Lunchtime music every Friday and Saturday, noon.
Friday, Tim Davis; Saturday, George Arthur.
St Peter's Church Hall, Hillside Rd.
Sunday, 2.30pm: Friends of the Opera present "Musical Direction - Frazzling, Frustrating, Fraught with Danger and Endlessly Fascinating", with Ian Page.
Stories from a musical director with excerpts from opera.
• Plays
Fortune Theatre, Stuart St.
From Saturday until May 2: Wuthering Heights.
Playhouse Theatre, 31 Albany St.
Until April 10: Not Quite The Big Bad Wolf.
• Talks and films
Dunedin Film Society, Red Lecture Theatre, Great King St.
Wednesday, 7.30pm: The White Balloon (Badkonake sefid), Iran, 1995.
Directed by Jafar Panahi.
Dunedin City Library, 230 Moray Pl.
Teen Space, today, 10.30am & 5.30pm: NHNZ Film Screening: China Quake.
Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the Octagon.
Sundays, 1.30pm and Wednesdays, 12.30pm: free guided tours of "Beloved: Works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery".
An overview of some treasured works in the collection.
Sunday, 3pm: Heather Straka discusses her latest project, "The Asian".
Otago Museum, 419 Great King St.
Free daily talks, 2pm.
Special exhibition gallery daily at 4.30pm: "Charles Darwin: Evolutionary Thinking".
Daily gallery talks for April: Mondays - "Southern Sky".
According to Maori mythology, the stars or "nga whetu" (the eternal shining ones) were all related to the Earth-mother Papatuanuku.
The night sky in southern New Zealand remains one of the best positions in the world for stargazing.
Tuesdays: "Kereru". The New Zealand pigeon is a special avian character.
Discover its behaviour, habitats and what you can do to help bring it back from decline.
Wednesdays: "Early Otago Museum History".
Explore the development of the Otago Museum collection from the early days as a colonial museum of natural history.
Thursdays: "Watom Island".
This volcanic island is the site of several Otago Museum archaeological explorations investigating Lapita pottery - a key to the study of Pacific migration.
Fridays: "The Queensland Groper".
Learn about one of the largest fish in Australian waters.
Saturdays: "The Totem Pole".
Totem poles are monumental carvings from the northwest coast of North America.
Join us to explore the cultural origins of the museum's totem piece.
Sundays: "The Venus de Milo".
Hear the history behind this beautiful statue and the mythical origins of the Greek goddess it represents.
Friday, 1pm, Barclay Theatre: Nancy Earth talks about Japanese ceramic art.
Friday, 2pm, Atrium level 1: Live ceramic demonstration by Victor Greenaway.
Friday, 3pm, Barclay Theatre: Ceramic artist Kurt Spurey shares the history of clay as an artistic medium and discusses why few modern ceramicists have become household names.
The Shed, Northburn Station, Cromwell.
Sunday, 11.30am: Nicky Pellegrino, former editor of NZ Woman's Weekly will talk about her new book.
Wanaka Library, 2a Bullock Creek.
Wednesday, 6pm: Joe Bennett speaks about his writing.
Tickets from the library.
Phone(03) 443-0410
• Exhibitions
Aigantighe Art Gallery, 49 Wai-iti Rd, Timaru.
Until April 18: Craig Freeborn: "Old Positions/New Traditions".
Art Upstairs, corner Ardmore and Helwick Sts, Wanaka.
Contemporary watercolours by Alan Waters.
Open from 10am daily.
The Artist's Room, 2 Dowling St.
Colin Wheeler: "Past Times".
Bannockburn Cafe and Store, Bannockburn.
Megan Huffadine: small sculptural works.
Bellamys Gallery, Macandrew Bay.
Until April 30: "Macrocarpa", featuring work by Manu Berry, Pauline Bellamy, Max Bellamy, Max Oettli, Bruce Hellyer, Reuban McKay, James Robinson, John Bellamy, Simone Oettli, Lynn Taylor, Rod Eales, Steve Peyroux, Sarah McKay, Jon Chapman, Rod Morris, Erin Anson, Frank Gordon and Peter Johnson.
Brett McDowell Gallery, 5 Dowling St.
Ends tomorrow: Jose Nunez: "Palomas, Plantas y Figuras".
From Saturday: Takeshi Yasuda.
Dunedin City Library, 230 Moray Pl, Reed Gallery, third floor.
Until June 13: "By Trench and Troopship", Journals of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces.
Showcases the library's collection of soldiers' newspapers written by and for New Zealand's armed services between 1899 and 1943.
Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the Octagon.
Ongoing: "Beloved: Works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery".
Until August 1: "Jan van der Ploeg: Dignity". Dutch painter Jan van der Ploeg will be producing a site-specific work for the Big Wall.
Until May 18: "Cao Fei: Utopia".
Chinese artist Cao Fei has a reputation for multimedia installations.
Until April 18: Madeleine Child: "Sweet As". Featuring Child's signature range of oversized and deliciously rococo popcorn.
Until May: Taryn Simon, "An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar".
Until June 20: Heather Straka: "The Asian".
From Saturday until June 27: Wayne Barrar: "An Expanding Subterra".
Gallery at Glenfalloch, Glenfalloch Gardens.
Contemporary works by six Otago Peninsula artists.
Gallery on Blueskin, 1 Harvey St, Waitati.
Until April 25: "Crystal Glazes", new work by potter Peter Gregory.
The Gateway Gallery, 27 Ross Pl, Lawrence.
"Sweet As", prints by Jason Kelly, Rita Angus, Hamish Allan, Ron Esplin, Barry Ross Smith, Diana Adams.
Chairs by James Stewart, ceramics by Marjorie Hay, Ro McQueen, Judy Ringland Stewart and others.
Green Island Gallery, 149 Main South Rd, Green Island.
Until April 17: works by Kylie Duncan and Gary Clarkson.
Hocken Gallery, cnr Anzac Ave and Parry St.
Open Monday-Friday 9.30am-5pm, Saturday 9am-noon.
Until April 24: Eddie Clemens, "Delusional Architecture".
Hullabaloo Art Space, Melmore Tce, Old Cromwell historic precinct.
Until April 10: Robyn Urquhart: "Iconic Imprints".
Milford Galleries, Dunedin, 18 Dowling St.
Neil Dawson, "Deck: Second Hand".
Neil Dawson's sculptural works play with cards, the notions of chance and how we play the game of life.
Milford Galleries, Queenstown, 9A Earl St.
Until April 14: Royal Queenstown Easter Show featuring work by Nigel Brown, Garry Currin, Michael Hight, Luke Jacomb, Neal Palmer, Reuben Paterson, Mike Petre, Elizabeth Rees, Doc Ross, Tim Royall, Terry Stringer and Elizabeth Thomson.
Until April 14: Ann Robinson, "Masterworks".
Nadene Milne Gallery, 16 Buckingham St, Arrowtown.
Ends tomorrow: Wayne Youle, "Soar".
North Otago Museum, 60 Thames St, Oamaru.
Until May: "Sweat and Starch": Textiles from the museum's collections.
None Gallery, 24 Stafford St.
Opens today: Manu Berry: "Watermarks".
Otago Museum, 419 Great King St.
Until April 11, 1877 Gallery: "Celebrating Ceramics".
Until May 23: "Charles Darwin: Evolutionary Thinking", Nature Galleries, level 3, free.
Until April 19: "Charles Brasch: A great good man", People of the World Gallery, level 2.
Until May: "Dinosaur Eggs and Babies", Special Exhibitions Gallery, level 1.
Otago Settlers Museum, 31 Queens Gardens.
Ongoing: "Across the Ocean Waves", interactive exhibition about Otago immigration in the age of sail.
Until June: "Willkommen to Dunedin: A History of German-speaking People in Otago".
Renaissance Gallery and Sculpture Garden, corner Junction Rd and Matai St, Ravensbourne.
Until April 19: Bronwyn Mohring, Kathy Palenski, Phyllis Smith present "Fine Feathers - clay and found objects".
Open: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays noon-5pm.
Stuart Street Potters Co-operative, 14 Lower Stuart St.
Until April 11: Nicole Kolig and Marion Familton.
Taieri Gallery, 123 Gordon Rd, Mosgiel.
Until May 5: Works by local artist Jan Thomson.
Temple Gallery, 29 Moray Pl, Dunedin.
Until April 17: "Au", works by Ralph Hotere and Mary McFarlane.
